DePauw men’s soccer’s perfect streak ended last night on an own goal that resulted in a 3-2 loss against Rose Hulman (5-2-1).
The Tigers (5-1-1) came into Wednesday night ranked for the first time this season after upsetting number six ranked Loras last Saturday.
The Tigers took an early lead on an unassisted goal by junior forward Zach Hoffman just after the 6:00 mark. It was Hoffman’s fourth goal of the season.
Play remained even between the two teams until just after 17:00, when the Fighting Engineers took the lead within two minutes with a goal from junior Alex Jansen, followed by a goal from first-year Ben Lyons.
“We had trouble passing the ball and we suffered from two quick counter attacks,” said junior forward Julian Gonzalez.
The Tigers went into halftime down 2-1.
“Last night was the first time we trailed in a match while going into half,” assistant coach and former DePauw goalie Jake Pezzuto said, “We still came out strong in the second half.”
Pezzuto’s words could not ring truer, as right out of the gate, junior midfielder E.J. Moore scored his third goal of the season off a direct kick on goal that resulted from a Rose Hulman foul.
This equalized the score at 2-2 and leveled the playing field for the remainder of regulation play.
“As a team, we responded well in the second half,” said Hoffman. “That early goal in the second half by E.J. [Moore] was what we needed in order to battle for the rest of the game.”
The rest of the half remained scoreless, forcing the game into overtime. With the clock set for 10 additional minutes of play, both teams took their places back out on the field, ready to fight for what would be a crucial win for both programs.
For most of overtime, neither team could put the game away.
But with only three minutes remaining, an inadvertent own goal from Tigers’ senior defender Chris Schoenfeld, gave the Fighting Engineers the point they needed to seal their 3-2 victory, snapping DePauw’s six game winning streak.
“I look at the three goals we conceded, and all three are preventable, we just have to be a little more focused defensively in keeping track of back post runs, and not turning the ball over in dangerous positions moving forward,” Pezzuto said.
On defense, Yount recorded one save in the losing effort.
“We came out and played a lot better in the second half and overtime,” said first-year defender Andrew Gold. “Unfortunately it's not the team that deserves to win that always gets the result.”
Despite the disappointing finish, the men are ready to leave the loss behind them.
“As a team, we need to keep our heads up and be ready to come out on Saturday fired up looking for revenge from tonight,” Hoffman said.
Gold echoed similar sentiments.
“Our job now is to go out and prove that our win again Loras wasn't a fluke and that we can beat any team in the country,” he said, “That starts this Saturday as we kick off the conference opener against Oberlin.”
The Tigers will take on the Yeomen on Saturday at 2:30 p.m. in Reavis Stadium.
PHOTOS COURTESY ZACH TAYLOR & KALEB VAN ARNSDALE / THE DEPAUW